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Tuesday, 6 January 2004

Flight BA 223is the byword for the intelligence that now typifies the paralysing fear of another jet-fuelled attack on American soil by terrorists.

Cancelled, delayed and grounded for security reasons because the passenger list possibly contains the name of a toddler terrorist ready to blow up the flight with Farley's crusts dipped in milk formula.

Well, that farce accompanied the cancellation of six flights betweenParisandLos Angelesover Christmas.

With all the fanfare that greeted the establishment of the mammoth department called Homeland Security, one would think the Americans have returned to their Native Indian roots.

ChiefLong Tom[read as euphemism for Tom Ridge] sweeping the air waves with America's rights of sovereignty to refuse permission for flights to land if not accompanied by air marshals has also advocated screening procedures more intrusive than typical of endoscopies.

Well, one can think of over 20 places of interest in the whole wide world to visit that does not feature America. If they want to be unilateral and insular, why bother going there?

I have no sympathy for the inconvenienced so much that they express such stoicism for improved security measures at the expense of dignity, respect, courtesy and freedom.

I am having none of that.

In fact, commendBrazilfor advocating retaliatory measures of screening Americans with the same ferocity. Do not forget that full-blooded Americans perpetrated theOklahomabombing.

That foreign terrorists abound does not mean homegrown terrorists cannot create the same havoc as September 11 and they do not have to go through airport security.

It is all a Red Herring, it is unlikely that the terrorists would attack using the sameModus Operandi, low level techniques that could easily fox the greatest intelligence collaborations do not require the sophistication of weaponry if the perpetrator is ready to give up life and livelihood.

The Petty Tyrants again

Well, nine units in five departments have yet to coordinate their watch lists of shady characters so that the child's name was confused with that of a terrorist. So, cancel six flights to press home the disarray.

Once again, what it highlights is departmental rivalries constituting little empires working against the interests of the state they represent in the quest to assume more influence.

What the simple sharing of information would save in a coordinated list approach is lost to the work of those ubiquitous petty tyrants who have no purpose than to propagate the cult of bureaucracies and red tape that infuriates right thinking people.

Hence, Senator Chuck Grassley's comments:

“Information sharing among federal agencies remains inefficient and without clear direction or leadership. Different computer systems in five departments with nine agencies and twelve watch lists have trouble exchanging information. State and local law enforcement only have about half of the information in watch lists.”

The threat of terrorism seems to be as effective as the act itself. The acts prove they are still about, but the threats are a life-giving force that perpetrates fear and insecurity.

Well, that is whatterroris all about, inspiring fear; where fear reigns; courage, love, boldness and sound minds are slaves. [Second Book of Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 – The Bible].

One believes that reciprocity on the part of the nations of all nationals affected would expose the absurdity of the American Paranoiac age that characterizes the second Bush era reminiscence of the McCarthy witch-hunt of the 1950s.

The war on terrorism on American soil however typifies a witchhunt with the primary purpose of harassing and weakening the entire political opposition on the premise of protecting the citizenry. The rights forfeited in the Patriot Act are case in point.

If everyone introduced stringent security measures of screening, air marshals, no-fly zones and fully documented passenger details available to all levels of law enforcement, the might of democratic Capitalism would have succumbed to the strictures that typified Communism.

History has a way of repeating itself.

Related Posts derived from the following labels: American,
Communism,
intelligence

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I have many stories to tell, I am English of Nigerian parentage, I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years, returned to the UK recently but still have wander lust - the rest is somewhere online, most likely in on blogs.